it should break my heart to stop away from you, for his welfare is my sacred charge & nearer & dearer than all to me. Verily, my God, strengthen me, comfort me, stay for me--let that have a little beginning on this dear earth which is for all eternity, which will live & grow immortally into a diviner reality than the heart of man has conceived. I am well satisfied with Norah, dear Friend. She is very affectionate, loveable, prudent, & clear in all practical matters, well suited to Percy in tastes, &c. Your own ANNIE. LETTER XXXI ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN _Blaenavon Routzpool Mon. England Jan. 18, '76._ MY DEAREST FRIEND: Do not think me too wilful or headstrong, but I have taken our tickets & we shall sail Aug. 30 for Philadelphia. I found if I did not come to a decision now, we could not well arrange it before next summer. And since we _have_ come to a decision my mind has been quite at rest. Do not feel any anxiety or misgivings about us. I have a clear and strong conviction I am doing what is right & best for us all. After a busy anxious time I am having a week or two of rest with Percy, who I find fairly well in health & prospering in his business--indeed, he bids fair to have a large private practice as an analyst here, & is already making income enough to marry on, only there is to build the nest--& I think he will have actually to _build_ it, for there seem no eligible houses--& to furnish--so that the wedding will not be till next spring or early summer. Nevertheless, with a definite goal & a definite time & the way between not so very rugged, though rather dull and lonely, I think he will be pretty cheery. This little town (of 11,000 inhabitants, all miners, smelters &c.) lies up among the hills 1100 ft. above the sea--glorious hills here, spreading, then converging, with wooded flanks, & swift brooklets leaping over stones in the hollows--the air, too, of course deliciously light & pure. I have heard through a friend of ours of Bee's fellow student who lives in Camden (Mr. Suerkrop, I think his name is) that we shall be able to get a very comfortable home with pleasant garden there for about £55 per an. I think I can manage that very well--so all I need is to hear of a comfortable lodging or boarding house (the former preferred) where we can be, avoiding hotels even while we hunt for the house. I have arranged for my goods to sail a week later than we do, so as to give us time. Good-bye for a short while, my dearest Friend. ANNE GILCHRIST. Bee has obtained a very satisfactory account of the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia & introductions to the Head, &c. LETTER XXXII ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN _1 Torriano Gardens Camden Rd. London Feb. 25, '76._ MY DEAREST FRIEND: